A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hofland, Barbara
HOFLAND, BARBARA,
Was born in 1770, at Sheffield, where her father, Mr. Robert Wreaks, was an extensive manufacturer. In 1796, Miss Wreaks married Mr. T. Bradshaw Hoole, a young man connected with a large mercantile house in Sheffield; but he died in two years after their marriage, leaving her with an infant son only four mouths old; and soon after, she lost the greater part of her property. Mrs. Hoole, in 1805, published a volume of poems, with the proceeds of which she established herself in a small school, at Harrogate, where she continued to write, but principally in prose. In 1808, Mrs. Hoole married Mr. Thomas C. Hofland, a landscape-painter, and went with him to London. She still pursued her writing with, great zeal, and in 1812 published five works.
In 1833 she lost her son by Mr. Hoole; and her husband died in 1843. She had continued to write till this time, but her health now failed, and she expired the following year, 1844, aged seventy-four. Her principal works are, "The Clergyman's Widow," "The Daughter-in-Law," "Emily," "The Son of a Genius," "Beatrice," "Says she to her Neighbour, What?" "Captives in India," "The Unloved One," "Daniel Dennison," &c. &c. All her productions are moral and instructive; she was earnest in her purpose of doing good. And she has done much service to the cause of improvement, though her works are not of that high order of genius which keeps its place in the heart of humanity, because its productions mirror life and not manners.